Riches

Thank you, Hillcrest Family, for an incredibly memorable and meaningful celebration of ten years as your pastor.  I was overwhelmed by the love and gratitude expressed by you towards me and my family.  The time and preparation which went into just the food was so valuable and remarkable.  I am still stunned by how much of your time and energy went into that meal and celebration.  The cards you gave and the words you shared were very humbling and I am grateful that God could utilize someone like me to make a difference in anyone's life.  Not just on this one occasion, but often, you make me feel encouraged, love and competent.  It's easy to serve with you because of the loving way you have treated me for the past ten years.  Most folks in ministry only hear these kinds of affirmations when they are leaving, retired or at their funeral.  We have several letters Paul sent to churches (Like Galatians, Ephesians, etc.), but we have no record of letters sent to Paul by any of these churches or individuals in those churches.  I think those letters would sound a lot like the cards and letters you have given me this week.  I feel so honored to be your pastor.

Some may think ministry is a lonely profession, but as I reflect on thirty years in ministry, that is not the case.  I remember my last of three Summer at Mount Olive Baptist Church in King, North Carolina.  I had graduated from college and was heading off to Louisville for Summer.  The church had a going-away party with the obligatory rolling of my car in toilet paper.  Though there were tears, the embraces and loving words still make me smile.  Over the years, these folks have stayed in touch with me and continued to love and support me.  I even have the privilege of being involved in the lives of the kids of some of those "youth".  Whenever I am able to make it back to King, I get a wonderful Martha Duggins home-cooked meal and a house full of friends laughing and loving.  Three years later, I was graduating from Southern Seminary in Louisville and was saying good-bye to my friends at Ridgewood Baptist Church.  I had served as Youth Minister during my three years in seminary.  The largest number of kids in that youth group were all graduating from high school the same year.  I remember how deeply I had been touched by that church and especially those seniors.  They had allowed me to become a part of their lives and I am still honored to be involved.  I thank God for Facebook because this has allowed me to reconnect with them.  I have only been back to Louisville one time since graduation, but these wonderful people continue to pray for me, love me and even harass me.  A week after leaving Louisville, I was ordained at my home church, Lawndale Baptist Church in Greensboro.  My family came and supported me and my Dad even gave the charge to me as a minister.  Quite a few folks from King came to this event and my home church turned out in a big way.  I remember thinking how blessed I was to grow up in a church that supported those who went into ministry.  Over the years, Lawndale has sent work teams to help with a construction project at the church I served on the Big Island.  Several me from Lawndale are my daily prayer partners.  I try to go to Lawndale whenever I am back in Greensboro and always get lots of hugs and love from the "older-timers".  Going to Lawndale is like going to a place of comfort and safety.  Two weeks after I was ordained, I began to work at Hawaii Baptist Academy in Honolulu.  I went to a place where I knew absolutely no one, but within a few months, I had made life long friends.  The students and staff at HBA made such an impact on my life.  Over half of my friends on FB are from HBA.  It is such an honor to still be involved in their lives.  Whenever I travel to an area with an HBA student, I have a place to stay or friends to meet to eat.  Many of them have shared wisdom and comfort with me over the years.  While on Oahu, I joined the First Baptist Church of Pearl City.  The depth of friendships from my five years at this church cannot be explained on any blog.  This church taught me how a church should show the love of Jesus in tangible ways.  They took me in and adopted me, trying to help acculturate me.  Hey, I'll always be a haole from the mainland, but they taught me local ways and introduced me to local foods.  I remember in 1991 when I was waiting at the interisland terminal for my flight that would take me from Honolulu to the Kamuela where I was to begin pastoring the First Baptist Church of Waimea.  I can still close my eyes and look around that airport at so many friends who were there to see me off.  I was covered in so many leis, I had enough for every person on my flight, so I shared those leis.  I remember thinking, "why am I leaving this place?", but I knew I was following God's direction.  When I landed on the Big Island, I was greeted at the airport by one of the members of the First Baptist Church of Waimea.  He said that he would take me to the parsonage, but that there would be nothing planned until the next night when I was to meet with the Pastor Search Committee.  I was a little relieved because saying "aloha" to all of my friends on Oahu had been a bittersweet experience.  I didn't want to be around people.  Imagine my surprise when I walked into a parsonage full of people.  It was an incredible welcome and I still remember some of those conversations.  Ten years later, God would lead my, along with my wife of seven years, to California.  I remember the send off at the Kona airport and seeing the faces of those wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ.  For ten years, we had laughed, love and served together.  It really was like leaving family.  In each of these places where God has taken me to minister, I have enjoyed building true friendships.  Many of these friendships have stretched over thirty years and some over thousands of miles.  When I see their faces, I can't help but smile.  Some even make me laugh (You know who you are).

I have seen the old, grainy video of Lou Gherig's retirement speech when he says the immortal words, "Today I feel like the luckiest man alive".  I don't feel like a lucky man.  I feel like a rich man.  Being obedient to Jesus has allowed me to meet some of the most wonderful people in the world.  I have the privilege of calling them "Friend".  They pray for me, love me even though they know how flawed I am and would be willing to help in an instant if I ever asked.  Many people go through their entire lives and may not even make on true friend.  How blessed am I to have some many true friends?  Riches cannot be measured by a bank account.  Riches can't be measured by popularity or how easy your name is to google.  In God's economy, riches have to do with eternity, with things that last.  I am rich because I have friendships that will stretch through eternity.  Even if I don't see these friends again in this life, we will party with Jesus in the next life.  I am so blessed by God!

I apologize for rambling in this Sip, but Sunday night was overwhelming for me.  I really don't know how to express my gratitude to Hillcrest Baptist Church for this affirmation.  It simply brought to mind what an honor it is as a minister of the Gospel to be allowed into the private world of so many people.  For those of you who have allowed me that privilege, please know how honored I am by that and how blessed you have made my life.  I hope this Sip will be an encouragement to you because if you have invested eternity into others, you also have riches which your bank account cannot contain.  Enjoy being rich, but pass on the key to these riches to others:  Jesus.  For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believers in Him would not perish but have eternal life.